Stuttgart. A clear no to systematic animal suffering: A recent INSA survey commissioned by PETA shows that 76 percent of Germans reject the sale of puppies on online platforms. 81 percent of survey participants reject sales in public spaces such as parking lots. Only 15 percent of the more than 2,000 respondents do not want a ban on sales on online marketplaces, the rest abstained. The ban is mainly supported by older people: 18- to 29-year-olds voted against the online trade in puppies by a narrow majority of 53 percent, while among those over 50 the figure is as high as 87 percent. Dogs offered for sale on internet platforms often come from the illegal puppy trade. Just in May, PETA published research that exposed the unscrupulous and Europe-wide business with puppies. Based on the survey results and the massively overcrowded animal shelters, PETA is calling on all online platforms to finally stop selling sentient beings. The animal rights organization also appeals to everyone not to buy animals on the Internet or from breeders, but to adopt them from animal shelters.
“The survey results are clear: the online trade in sentient beings must finally be stopped,” says Peter Höffken, a specialist at PETA. “We must finally take care of the animals that are already in the world and urgently need a home. Adopt instead of buy is the motto, because dogs are not a commodity.”
Illegal trade in baby animals is flourishing across Europe
A recent PETA revelation shows the enormous suffering caused by the “mass production” of puppies in Europe. PETA has evaluated and traced more than 200 transport documents from 6,000 puppies from 2023. Around six percent of the puppies died during transport. The survivors were often sick for life and had behavioral problems. Video footage from dog breeding facilities leaked to PETA shows filthy kennels and whelping boxes in which emaciated dog mothers have to “produce” offspring their entire lives. With an estimated annual turnover of 1.3 billion euros, illegally “produced” puppies are a profitable business for criminals. Germany is an important destination and transit country for the four-legged friends, which are mostly bred in Eastern Europe. According to the EU Commission, almost 60 percent of all dog and cat sales now take place via the online market. (1) Due to a lack of regulations, animals can be offered and sold completely anonymously. On the most frequently used European internet portals alone, around 438,000 puppies could be advertised on any given day. (2) On online platforms such as Quoka.de, deinetierwelt.de, edogs.de, markt.de or snautz.de, sentient beings are sold off like goods, while animal shelters are bursting at the seams.
Adopt instead of buying! Animals are not commodities
According to the Animal Welfare Dog Ordinance, puppies in Germany may be separated from their mothers from the eighth week of life. However, since particularly small puppies are in demand, many dog dealers sell the animals at just three to four weeks of age. The result is often behavioral problems that often last a lifetime. Since the puppies are neither vaccinated nor dewormed in the breeding facilities, they frequently suffer from infectious diseases that are often fatal. Criminal dealers smuggle the animals into Germany, usually with fake pet passports – contrary to animal welfare and illegal. In Germany, around 350,000 unwanted animals wait for a new home in animal shelters every year. Many facilities have already imposed a freeze on admissions in recent months. PETA is therefore appealing to everyone not to support breeding and instead to take in an animal from the animal shelter. Because every animal is a sentient individual and not an object that can be sold for profit.
PETA Germany will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2024. To mark the occasion, the organization is demanding that animals be recognized as persons under the law, i.e. as bearers of interests worthy of protection, and that they be granted certain basic rights. PETA's motto is: Animals are not there for us to experiment on, eat, wear, entertain or exploit in any other way. The organization campaigns against speciesism – a form of discrimination in which animals are devalued based on their species.
(1) European Commission (2023): More animal protection: EU Commission wants reform of transport rules and uniform animal welfare standards for dogs/cats. Press release dated December 7, 2023. Available online at: https://germany.representation.ec.europa.eu/news/mehr-tierschutz-eu-kommission-will-reform-der-transportregeln-und-einheitliche-tierwohl-standards-2023–12-07_de. (May 29, 2024).
(2) EU Dog and Cat Alliance (2020): Online pet advertising in the EU: the cost continues to rise. Available online at: https://www.dogandcatwelfare.eu/media/public ationtemp/EUPAAG_Report_F INAL_low_res_4z4Y18B.pdf. (29.05.2024).